We’ve all thought about taking our careers in new directions now and then, and these 5 successful actresses have revealed that they’ve contemplated packing it in at one stage or another. Some have thought about trying out some other jobs or have been open to giving another path a go, while others say they almost gave up on their acting dreams when they didn’t make it big, before they got their big break that is! They may have it all, but that doesn’t mean they want to be in the Hollywood game forever and have assessed their other options along the way, even if they’ve already achieved great things in their current field. Hoping to do what makes them happiest rather than just what they can get a big pay cheque for, these 5 actresses comment on why they’ve thought about quitting and what they might do otherwise.
Emma Watson
Emma took a step back from her acting career and thought about what she wanted to do: ”I basically took two years out and stepped as far away from it as I could – I mean the ‘HP’ films were still coming out but I took time to really try and figure out who I was and what I wanted to do. I even considered not being an actress.”
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer was surprised by how people changed and reconsidered her options: “People started talking to me differently and I couldn’t stand that. I’d go to parties where I used to be invisible and off the record… now everybody’s watching and listening. There was a weird element and I wondered whether I wanted to be a director or just do indie films.”
Marion Cotillard
Marion was going to quit when she got her big break: “The directors I dreamed of were Coppola, Scorsese, Tim Burton, David Lynch, Spielberg because of ‘E.T.’ I wasn’t considered an actress. I didn’t want to get bitter while waiting for something to happen, so when I was 27, I told my agent I was stopping and going to work for Greenpeace. He said, ‘Please just have this one meeting.’ It was with Tim Burton, for ‘Big Fish’, and I got the part.”
Mary-Louise Parker
Mary-Louise has grown disheartened by people’s negative attitudes and has thought about quitting: “The world has gotten too mean for me, it’s just too bitchy. All the websites and all the blogging and all the people giving their opinion and their hatred … it’s all so mean-spirited, it’s all so critical. It’s only started happening to me recently that I’ve felt weary of it all, so I don’t know.”
Michelle Williams
Michelle has thought about other professions and dreams about doing something new all of the time: “I often dream of quitting acting. Walking away and becoming a laundress or a sous chef or maybe writing other people’s love letters for a living.”
